Coffee Tea Cascara - 100g

Coffee Cherry, Not Coffee Bean

A coffee cherry is a small fruit, and the bean coffee drinkers know is actually the seed found at its center — during processing, that fruit layer (the pulp and outer skin) is removed from the seed before the seed is dried and roasted into the coffee bean itself. For most of coffee's commercial history, that fruit layer was simply discarded as processing waste. Cascara — Spanish for "husk" or "peel" — is what you get when that dried fruit skin is kept and steeped as a drink instead of thrown away.

This practice isn't a recent marketing invention. In Yemen, a traditional drink called qishr has long been made from dried coffee husk, often spiced with ginger, predating the modern specialty-coffee cascara trend by a long stretch. In Bolivia, a similar dried-cherry drink known regionally as sultana or café de cáscara has its own long-standing local tradition. Cascara's recent popularity in specialty coffee shops is really a rediscovery of preparations that already existed in coffee-growing regions, not a new idea.

Because it's fruit skin rather than tea leaf or roasted bean, cascara sits outside both major beverage categories it sounds adjacent to: it isn't tea (no Camellia sinensis at all) and it isn't coffee (no roasted bean, no coffee-bean flavor compounds), even though the low caffeine content it does carry comes from the same coffee plant the bean itself grows on.

How to Brew Cascara Coffee Tea

Cascara brews closer to a tisane than to coffee — steeped in hot water rather than run through a coffee brewer.

Parameter	Guidance
Water temperature	195–205°F (91–96°C)
Leaf dose	1–2 tbsp of dried cascara per 8 oz cup
Steep time	4–6 minutes
Caffeine	Low — noticeably less than brewed coffee

Cascara can also be cold-brewed for a longer, gentler extraction — steep a larger batch of dried cherry skins in cold water in the refrigerator overnight, then strain, for a milder, naturally sweet cold cup.

Did You Know

• "Cascara" simply means "husk" or "peel" in Spanish. The name describes exactly what's in the cup: the dried outer skin of the coffee cherry, not the seed that becomes the roasted bean.

• Yemen has a centuries-old coffee-husk drink called qishr. Traditionally brewed from dried coffee cherry skins and often spiced with ginger, qishr predates the modern specialty-coffee cascara trend by a long history in Yemeni coffee culture.

• Bolivia has its own traditional cascara-style drink. Known regionally as sultana or café de cáscara, it's a long-standing local preparation from dried coffee cherry, independent of cascara's more recent popularity in specialty coffee shops elsewhere.

• Every coffee bean starts inside a fruit. The bean coffee drinkers roast and grind is technically the seed at the center of a coffee cherry — cascara is made from the fruit that surrounds it, the part that gets removed and, historically, discarded before the bean is ever roasted.

What is cascara tea?

An infusion brewed from the dried skins of coffee cherries — the fruit layer removed from around the coffee bean during processing, steeped like a tisane rather than brewed like coffee.

Is cascara made from coffee beans?

No. It's made from the dried fruit skin surrounding the bean, not the bean (seed) itself — the two are separated during coffee processing.

Does cascara taste like coffee?

Not really. Most drinkers describe it as delicate, sweet, and fruity, closer to hibiscus and cherry than to roasted coffee, since none of the roasting-driven flavor compounds in coffee are present in the fruit skin.

Is cascara caffeinated?

It carries low caffeine — noticeably less than a cup of brewed coffee, though more than a typical caffeine-free herbal tisane.

Is cascara a tea or a coffee product?

Neither, strictly speaking — it's a genuine third category made from coffee-cherry fruit rather than tea leaf or roasted coffee bean, though the plant it comes from is the same one that produces coffee. For an actual coffee, DABOV Signature Blend is a good place to start.

How should I brew cascara?

Use water at 195–205°F (91–96°C), 1–2 tablespoons of dried cascara per 8 oz cup, and steep 4–6 minutes. It also cold-brews well overnight for a milder, sweeter cup.